Packages



Oct. 1, 1963 V. A. AHLBOR PACKAGES Filed Jan 18, 1961 INVENTOR BY M ATTEYE ot said panels. E

United States Patent 3,105,591 PACKAGES Valter A. Ahihor, Brornma,Sweden, assignor to Arenco Airtiebolag, Vallingby, Sweden, a Swedishjoint-stock company Fiied .Iau. 18, 1%1, Ser. No. 83,499

Claims priority, application Sweden Jan. 29, 196i) 1 Claim. (Ci. 206-41)Conventional soft cigarette packages are affected with the drawbackconsisting in that one of the ends of the package is likely to bemutilated when the consumer removes the first cigarette from the packagethrough said end, or said end can hardly be reclosed satisfactorilyafter such removal of a cigarette.

It is an object of the present invention to improve such soft packagesso that they will in important respects be equivalent to boxes and notbe affected with the abovementioned drawbacks. Accordingly, theinvention relates to a package for cigarettes or similar articlescomprising a thin wrapper of a flexible material having a rectangulartop end and, according to the invention, said package has a cap of amore rigid material secured to the top end of the wrapper and having ahinged lid and covering part of the wrapper. This involves that it isalso an object of the invention to provide something between aconventional soft package and a rigid box presenting the advantages ofboth said performances but avoiding their imperfectnesses.

A specific embodiment of the invention will be described, by way ofexample, with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which FIGURE 1shows the expanded upper end of a wrapper forming the soft package;

FIGURE 2 shows the pasted inside of a blank for producing the cap of thepackage;

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of said folded partially;

FIGURE 4 is a view similar to FIGURE 3 and showing the cap folded almostcompletely;

FIGURE 5 shows on an enlarged scale with exaggerated wall thicknesses asection of the front portion of the cap taken on the line VV of FIGURE6;

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view similar to FIGURES 3 and 4 and showingthe top end of a cigarette package made of the blank shown in FIGURE 1and provided with the cap;

FIGURE 7 is a view similar to FIGURE 6 and showing the lid of the cap inopen position.

The relatively thin wrapper or envelope blank 4 shown in FIGURE 1 isfolded in conventional manner on lines 5, 6, 7 and 8 which divide saidblank into two wide panels 9 and 10, one narrow panel 11 and twomarginal panels 12. A transversal fold line 21 defines the upperportions When folding this blank the marginal panels 12 are applied toone another and interconnected adhesively to form a rectangularlytubular blank having the two oppositely disposed wide side wallsconsisting of the panels 9 and and two oppositely disposed narrower sidewalls consisting of the panels 11 and 12. Above the fold line 21 thistubular blank has the wide panel ends 13 and 14, the narrow panel end 15and a narrow end consisting of the two panel ends 16 applied to eachother. These panel ends are in known manner tucked in and folded downupon each other so that the top end of the soft package 1 obtains theconventional appearance shown in FIGURE 6. The wrapper blank 4 is for apurpose indicated hereinafter provided with tearing lines 17, 18 and 19consisting, e.g., of perforations. The line 17 extends transverselybetween the fold lines 6 and 7 and from the ends of line 17 the twodivergent lines 18 extend obliquely on to the fold line 21 where capblank 3,i5,591 Patented Get. 1, 1963 ice they are continued by both thelines 19 which extend transversely to line 21 up to the top edge 29' ofthe wrapper blank 4.

To that half of the rectangular top end of the package 1 which isjuxtaposed one of the narrow edges of said top end (corresponding tothat portion of the fold line 21 which is located between the lines 6and 7) is secured adhesively a cap 2 which has a lid 3 and is formed byfolding the blank 2:: shown in FIGURE 2 and consists of a material whichis more rigid than the wrapper 4, e.g. cardboard or plastic material.

The cap blank 2a is provided with fold lines 23 which merge intoincisions 24 which define a tongue 25 disposed between a pair of sideflaps 27a and 27b. A fold line 26', extending transversely to the lines23, separates the tongue 25 and the flaps 27a and 27b from the middlesection 28 and the side sections 29a and 2%. A fold line 311 extendsacross the middle section 28. The side flaps 27a and 27b are byincisions 32 divided into inner sections 35a and 35b and narrower sidesections 33a and 33b. The length of the tongue 25 is somewhat greaterthan the width of the side flap sections 35a and 35b. The incisions 32have discontinuities in the form of breakable portions 34 between theflap sections 35a and 33a and between the flap sections 35b and 33b.From the incisions 32 to the fold line 30 extend convergent incisions 36obliquely on the panels 29a and 29b. Said oblique incisions 36 definetriangular panels 37 adapted to form side walls of the lid. The sideflap section 33a has on its inside a rim 44 formed by an impression inthe outer face of said panel. The tongue 25 has an exterior rim 41formed by an impression in the inner face of the tongue and the distanceof which from the fold line 26 is slightly greater than the distance ofthe rim 441 from the juxtaposed incision 24.

The cap blank 2a is provided with adhesive zones A, B, C, D D E and Fall of which, except the zones D and D are arrangel by pairssymmetrically. The zone D extends across the panels 29b and 33b Whereasthe zone D extends across the panel 29a only.

The cap blank 2a is applied to the finished package 1 in such mannerthat it covers that half of the top end of the package which is adjacentto the wall 11 whereby it adheres to said top end by its adhesive zonesA and B, the fold lines 23 coincide with the top edges of the packagewalls 9 and 10 and the fold line 26 coincides with the top edge of thepackage wall 11. Thereby the fold line 30 of the cap blank will bepositioned slightly behind the coinciding tearing lines 19 of thewrapper 4. Thereafter the tongue 25 is folded down upon the wrapper sidewall 11 so that it will by means of the adhesive Zones B adhere to therectangular wall portion 22 of the wrapper 4. Thereby the adhesive zonesB extend downwardly almost right on to the transversal tearing line 17of the package Wall 11. Thereafter the side flap 27a is folded on thepackage edge 7 (FIGURE 6) upon the tongue 25 as shown in FIGURE 4 sothat it will cover and adhere to same by its adhesive zone F. Thereafterthe side flap 27b is folded on the package edge 6 upon the side flap 27aso that it will adhere to same by its adhesive zones D and F whereby theincisions 32 of both the side flaps will coincide and the breakableportions 34 of said flaps will overlap. Thereby the package 1 has,according to FIGURE 6, been provided with the folded cap '2, in whichthe bottom edge of the tongue 25, projecting downwardly from the fronttop edge 26 of the lid 3, is disposed between the incision 32 and thebottom edge of the front wall 38 of the cap. Thus, the overlapping sideflaps 27a and 27b of the cap 2 form a wall which by the coincidingincisions 32' is divided into the front lid wall 39 and that front wallportion 38 of the cap which is located below the wall 39 and withinwhich 3 the tongue 25 is located. As shown in FIGURE 5 the locking rim41 of the inwardly yielding tongue 25 is disposed below the rim 40 onthe inside of the front wall portion 38 of the cap so that the lid willbe kept closed yieldingly.

In the blank 2a for forming the cap 2 the incisions and fold lines areso positioned that the incisions 32 and 36 in the cap applied to thepackage will be located slightly below the tearing lines 17 and 18 ofthe finished package. When the lid 3 has been opened (FIGURE 7) afterbreaking the seal 34 the portions 15, 22, 42 and 43- of the wrapper 4adhering to the lid will be torn away from the package end and followthe lid when swinging upwardly. The torn edges formed thereby have inFIGURE 7 the same reference characters as the corresponding tearinglines shown in FIGURE 1. When the lid 3 is folded upwardly the rim 41 onthe tongue 25 slides across the wall rim 40 whereby the tongue yieldsinwardly slightly.

From FIGURE 7 it is evident that even the first cigarette can easily betaken out of the package, viz. through the rigid corner consisting ofthe cap 3 whereafter the package can easily be reclosed tightly therebythat the tongue 25 is urged rearwardly slightly when the lid 3 is foldeddown whereby said tongue will be introduced between the edge 17 of thepackage wall 11 and the top edge of the rigid front wall section 38 ofthe cap 2. Owing to its resistance to displacement inwardly the tongue25 retains the lid 3 in its closed position safely and in dependence ofthe material used for producing the cap. The edges 17 and 18 of thepackage extend upwardly beyond the adjacent edges 32 and 36 of the capwhereby the sealing of the closed lid 3 will be improved and theintroducing of the tongue 25 between the wall section 38 of the cap 2and the package wall 11 below the edge 17 will be facilitated.

Alternatively the corner portion 15, 22, 42 and 43 of the package 1 isnot secured to the lid 3 of the cap 2. In such case it can be torn awaymanually after the lid 3 has been opened and also in such case thepackage opening will obtain substantially the appearance shown in FIG-URE 7.

I claim:

A package for cigarettes or similar articles comprising a thin wrapperof a flexible material having a pair of side walls, a front wall, and arectangular top end wall; a cap of a more rigid material having a topwall secured to said wrapper top end wall, said cap top wall having aflap extending beyond the upper edge of said wrapper front wall, twoside walls covering upper portions of the Wrapper side walls, eachhaving an end flap extending beyond the respective wrapper side wallspast said wrapper front wall, said top wall flap being folded down, andsaid cap side wall flaps being folded one upon the other across theupper portion of said wrapper front wall so that they overlap said topwall flap and are secured together, said side wall end flaps each beingprovided with an incision in register with each other and dividing saidside wall flaps into upper portions constituting together with said topwall flap an upper three-ply front wall of said cap and lower portionsconstituting a lower two-ply front wall of said cap overlapping an endportion of said top wall flap, a portion of said cap top wall carryingsaid top wall flap, triangular portions of said side walls adjacent saidcap side-wall fiaps and said upper three-ply front wall of said capbeing hingedly connected with the remaining portion of said cap top walland consisting of a lid constituting a wrapper opener secured to saidwrapper top end for pro viding an access opening in said wrapper top endand also constituting a means for the reclosure of said access opening,said cap side Walls each having an oblique incision extending from saidcap top wall to said incisions of said side wall end flaps and definingthe lower edges of said triangular side wall portions, said wrapperhaving tearing lines registering substantially with said incisions ofthe cap and constituting the lower edges of the top sections of saidwrapper walls adhesively connected with said triangular side wallportions and with said three-ply front wall of said lid.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,821,795 Geib Sept. 1, 19st 2,874,524 Ringler Feb. 24, 1959 2,902,201Engblom Sept. 1, 1959 3,018,031 Ahlbor et al Ian. 23, 1962 FOREIGNPATENTS 412,711 Great Britain July 5, 1934

